See Ya Next Year!!!

Happy Friday everyone!!
I thought I would squeeze in one last post before the New Year. I probably should be blow drying my hair and getting ready since I need to be out the door in an hour, but it can air dry right? I’m eating my breakfast also, see I’m just muti-tasking. hehe Anywho, I just wanted to wish you all a very happy and safe New Year.  I don’t know if this year has flown by as fast for you as it has for me, but WHEW! This has been the best year of my life by far. There have been so many special memories made in 2011. Since I’m so reluctant to say goodbye to 2011, I was trying to come up with some kind of blog recap of 2011 that I could do.  I think what I decided on is, at the end of every month, blog about my favorite memory of that month, of 2011. If that makes sense. That way, I’m still holding on to my favorite parts of 2011. : ) I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in 2012!!!

Well shucks, I need to get going. I have to wake Jake up, which is like the hardest job ever!!! Again, I wish you all a very very happy and safe New Years! I will share all about my lovely weekend with you all on Monday of course.  Plus, I will talk resolutions and all that good stuff. ; )

NYE 2007 (I was with Jake, just don’t have a pic with him)

NYE 08

NYE 09

Have a lovely New Years!!
I can’t wait to kiss my husband at midnight! ; )

No time to be lazy

Motivation is coming back to me, I think…or maybe its just because it had to. There were just things that had to be done. I had to go to the grocery store because there was absolutely nothing in the fridge and I had to drive to Mount Vernon yesterday to pick up my dress for this weekend. Good news, we can eat now and my dress looks great! Plus I got to eat lunch with my MIL, which is always a pleasure. Even though I checked a couple things off my list there is still more that needs to be done…but isn’t there always.  So here are my goals for today 1. Clean the entire house. lol 2. work out (I did work out yesterday, see the motivation is slowly coming back to me) 3. Pack and have everything ready for this weekend. Okay, so that doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you know me cleaning the entire house means every nook and cranny needs scrubbed and of course packing will be a challenge because it’s a big weekend and I CANNOT forget anything. So basically all of these things MUST be done by tonight.


And this is my day tomorrow..
 First, I’m dropping Jake off at work. Then I’m heading to Fairview to pick up his Tux for the wedding Saturday. (which he should have done already, but I won’t go there) Jane if you are reading this, you can kill Jake for me, he says he couldn’t help it lol. After that, I’m dropping the kid of at my parents for the weekend (Lilly, of course) Then I’m heading to Clayton to meet Jane and the other bridesmaids for lunch and a trip to the Spa (YAY!). Then I’m picking Jake up at the airport, yes the airport. Marion does have a small airport, who would have known. So Jake is taking a half day and flying from Marion to St. Louis. So then, after I pick him up we are going straight to the rehearsal at Saint Francis Xavier College Church and then to Bush Stadium for the dinner. It’s going to be a busy, but awesome time. Then of course, we have an amazing wedding on NYE for our nearest & dearest friends. It’s going to be sooo much fun, I can’t wait. EEEKKK That is me squealing with excitement. 


So last night, after Jake got off work, we drove to Carbondale to exchange some things and then we decided to eat at Chili’s. Jake dips his chip in guacamole and bites down hard on a piece of PORCELAIN!! Ouch. I guess it broke off of, one of the other little white bowls that they put their salsa and gauc in. He was not happy. He said he was going to take an x-ray of his tooth, today at work and make sure it’s not cracked. The Chili’s manager asked if he needed to fill out an accident form, but Jake was like "nah, were not going to do anything, don’t worry”.  Anyway, we got some new guacamole and all was well. I just thought it was kind of ironic that a dentist was the one who almost cracks his tooth on a piece of porcelain from eating guacamole at a restaurant. Bwhaha, not that it’s funny… = )

Here it is...

Poor guy ; (

Well, the dog is hungry and I need to throw the sheets in the wash, but before I go... here are some old birthday pics, I stubbled on this morning. ; ) I just didn’t think this post had enough pics...

Blowing out the candles on my 25th B-day

I wonder what I wished for? ;)

Yes, I’m wearing a ribbon.

Jake made me wear that the entire time we were out for dinner ; ) haha

Hope everyone gets to have a lazy.. I mean lovely day today ; )

Fight The Funk

I just don’t know where my motivation went. Now that Christmas is over, I just feel like hiding under the covers and sleeping all day. Maybe it’s because now it’s finally cold and dark and snowy. Sorry snow, but I don’t care that much about you now that Christmas is over.  Christmas just didn’t feel the same this year without it. As we drove to Mount Vernon Christmas morning the sun was shining in my face and I wasn’t too happy about it. Jake said that I’m probably the only person on Earth complaining about sun shining on me.  I wanted it to be dark, cold and gloomy with tons of snow on the ground. Call me crazy, but that is how Christmas day should be.  Or maybe I’m just not that motivated because I’m still in a sugar coma. I feel crappy, I’ll say it. I ate way too many sweets this weekend. I think I will puke if I look at another cookie. I seriously am getting rid of every last sweet in this house.

Heading home for Christmas!

On a more positive note…we did have an amazing Christmas. The Christmas festivities started on Friday night. Jake, me, my mom and sister all went to The Fabulous Fox Theater to see The Beauty and The Beast. It was awesome. It may have been a little pathetic that I remembered all of the words to the songs, but oh well.  I wasn’t really fond of the new songs they added though, but maybe I’m just being stubborn about it. ; ) Anyway, the play was awesome and we all had a great time.  I got to see a couple of my old Applebuddies that night also, so that was fun. = )

Saturday was a day of celebration.


Saturday morning we celebrated the life of Debbie Daniels. It was a sad morning.  Debbie is one of my dearest childhood friend’s mother and was like a mother to me growing up. Although I did not get to spend that much time with her in the past few years, all these wonderful memories of her came back to me during the ceremony. She was truly an amazing woman and what kept me smiling, was knowing that every great thing about her was passed on, through her, to her daughter, Ashley. Ashley was my best friend growing up and she is honestly one of the sweetest, kind and pure of heart person I have ever known.  She always has a smile on her face and I miss her.  It’s a shame we didn’t stay as close through out the end of high school and college, but I will always love her. We celebrated her mother’s life that day and she will be missed very much.


Jake and I headed back to my parents house after the funeral and took little nappypoos,  to make sure we were well rested for a night of celebrating!! First, we start the night off by celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.  I hope people didn’t forget the true meaning of Christmas and had the opportunity to do so. Every year we attend my aunt Karen’s church’s Christmas eve service. It’s a tradition, as is, walking in late every year. haha It never fails we are always the last people walking in, but at least we always make it. After we blow out the candles to the singing of silent night, we head back to my aunt Karen’s house for some more celebrating!  We had an amazing time with family. We opened presents, played games laughed and ate way too much!

So we played this one game, where you have 20 people and you stand in two lines of ten facing each other. You each hold a little stocking and there are either pieces of a nativity scene in your stocking or candy. One person rolls the dice (my aunt Karen did). You use LRC dice. If the dice land on left you pass to the left if the dice lands on center you pass your stocking to the person across from you etc. So at the end of the game whoever has baby Jesus in their stocking is the winner and wins the most cash. Whoever has Mary & Joseph wins a little less cash and so on… So guess who had baby Jesus…Jakey!!

Dad, Nicky and Jake all won some cash

Mom and I won candy..hehe; )

and…Some of my Cookies!

Josie and I

Sorry, but I had to…

Last but not least.. Crown Shots! Family Tradition

Merry Christmas!!!
Christmas morning we awoke at my parents house. We opened gifts that Santa left the night before ; ) and then ate our Christmas breakfast!

Cheeseballs! 

Lilly opening her gift

 She is a ham

Love it

 After breakfast it was time to head to Mount Vernon to celebrate with Jake’s family.  So more eating, playing games, spending time with family and laughing.  I love making new memories every year.

Me with my sister-in-laws!

Jakes gift from his mom LOL

opening presents!

Ticket to Ride! 

Sorry about the combination of crappy phone pics and my DSLR pics.. hahah

I’m so sad it’s over, but it was a great one. Jake and I got to spend our first Christmas and husband and wife together and I loved every minute of it.


Now it’s time to get out of this slump and get some motivation!!!! I’m still not going to take down our Christmas decor for probably another month or so. ; ) It’s just too cute. Now, I guess it’s time to detox and get all of this sugar out of my system and get out of this funk. Ewww


I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.
& Come on Motivation!!

Done!

Mission Completed!! Bakerella can now hang up her apron. I am DONE baking for Christmas!!! Although I love to bake, I am so happy I am done with that. I baked hundreds and hundreds of cookies!!  I probably made about 12 different kinds. For those of you who have seen that “Done” Target commercial, that is how I felt when I shut the lid on the last container and packed it away. I have been saying “Done” over and over since then. I even cleaned to kitchen to where it is actually cleaner than it was before I started baking. My mixer even got a bath, poor thing is probably so tired…. ; )

I am not completely done however. I still need to get ready for tonight, finish packing for the weekend, load all of the Christmas cookies and presents into the vehicle, all by 4:30.  Oh and I need to vacuum. It’s always nice to come home from a long weekend to a spotless house. : ) I probably shouldn’t even be writing, but I needed a break. However, the longer I am on here writing the crappier I will look tonight.  ; ) I’m picking Jake up from work then we are heading straight to St. Louis to go see Beauty and The Beast at the Fox. Well, not straight there we are taking a little detour to pick up my mom and sister and dropping Lilly off. I am soooo excited, Beauty and the Beast was my favorite Disney movie as a child…okay it still is. Can’t wait for the show!

So obviously I baked the entire night last night, but while the cookies were in the oven I took some cute pictures of Lilly and our tree…

 I also got an early Christmas present from Jake. A timer for my baking! It sure came in handy last night and today. He set the timer and then wrapped it and put it under the tree last night. I went in the living room for something and heard a ticking noise coming from under the tree. I was like “WTH”?! I asked take if he planned on blowing me up for Christmas…he just laughed. LOL He is so silly, but I love him.

So anyway, I guess I better be going. I probably won’t blog again until Tuesday, so I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Pic of the Day!

Our Tree full of goodies!

Have a LOVELY Christmas!!!

Goodbye Cindy Healey, Hello Bakerella!

 Say hello to Mrs. Frazier!!! Finally, YAY! It is pretty sad that Cindy Healey no longer exist. Yesterday I drove to Edwardsville so that I could finally get my name changed. For those of you who keep asking why I waited so long…Here are the excuses…I mean reasons. First of all, I was waiting until we got back from France so that way we didn’t need to buy me a new passport, for now anyway. Okay, it’s been over a month since we have been back, so what took so long?! A couple weeks ago we had car problems and since I had to drive to Edwardsville to do it, I had no way to get over there. So now we have a new car and I have no more excuses. So, yesterday I finally made the trip.  It feels so weird to really have to sign my name as Cindy Frazier now, but I love it. What I didn’t love was that I had to make 3 different trips yesterday just to change my name. Then I had to go to the bank and change all of that stuff.. Ugghhh it was not fun. I did get to see my sister and have lunch with her, so that made the  whole trip worth it. ; )

YAY!

 When I got home, I must have still been feeling productive because I started organizing papers, wedding stuff and all sorts of crap. I did this for 3 hours. It felt so good to get all of that done, however I probably should have been BAKING!!! So that’s what I’m doing ALL day today. I’m ready and in a great mood. I slept in today because the bed and Jake were just so cozy and warm. I also woke up to a really sweet note from Jake, so that put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.  Almost five years together and he still makes me the happiest girl in the world. = ) To make sure my great mood last all day, I will be blaring Christmas tunes the entire time I am baking. I recorded Jessica Simpson’s Christmas special the other night, so I will use that for some great background music. The girl has an amazing voice and have you seen her boobs lately?! Her baby will definitely not go hungry.

I forgot to share this photo in my last blog post and I think it’s funny, so here ya go.

It’s Mike and Jake playing Kinect last weekend. HAHAHAH They are just too cute! ; )

While I’m at it….

HEHEHEH Erin and Rae at Cracker Barrel last week!! Erin looks happy…Rae… not so much! These two are going to KILL me!!! I love you you guys!!! I downloaded this app on my phone called Virtual Snow.  Basically it just shows snow falling on your screen, wherever you point your phone….I think it’s pretty cool. LOL Speaking of Cracker Barrel, I’m obsessed with this place lately. I guess I’m just starting to fit in with everyone else around here. : ) No offense, Southern Illinoisans! ; )  Or it could be that they have a cute little store inside with sweet treats and a fire place!!!

I’m being really random today, sorry about that guys. Well, this bakerella needs to get going. Today I am making : Butter Cookies, Lemon Bars, Peanut Butter Cookies, Chocolate Chunk Cookies, and Peanut Blossms! Tuesday night I was up will 2:00 A.M. making just sugar cookies and Russian Tea Cakes. This is going to be a LONG day!!! Wish me luck! I’m not sure if I will have time to blog tomorrow, but hopefully I will get one more in before CHRISTMAS!!! Ahh it’s SO close!!

Christmas PicS of The Day!

More of my lovely SNOW!!

And….

A Christmas Oldie, but goodie! 

2007 That does not look like Jake! bwahahah

Have a lovely day!!!

No Scrooges here!!

Happy Monday!!!

Only six more days until Christmas!! I can’t believe it, I’m so so so excited!! : O I am going to be a baking fool this week. I mentioned in a previous post, that I volunteered to make the Christmas cookies for my Aunt Karen this year. I’m taking on a big job, but a fun one! I’m actually really excited about doing this, I just hope they all turn out good. No, they can’t be just good, they need to be amazing. I’m making about 13 different kinds of cookies, so the baking needs to start now. Just call me Bakerella this week! I think today I’m going to practice a few of the recipes. I can always give some away to Jake’s office if I have too many.

Jake and I had such a lovely relaxing weekend together. This was the first weekend at home where we could do whatever we wanted. We haven’t even been able to have any friends come visit us yet, so we invited the Smith’s to come over on Saturday night. It was so nice of them to drive down for the night and visit us. We had such a good time seeing them and catching up. I have to share with you guys, this adorable Christmas tree ornament Rachel made us!

She is so sweet! They also brought me some cupcake wine since I’m not eating sweets!! That is so sweet. I do have a confession to make… I totally lost that bet with myself about 2 weeks ago at the Crawford Christmas party. It was those darn chocolate covered pretzels that looked amazing!! They were amazing too, but I’m not giving up. I just need to hide the Cocoa Chex-mix from myself, that stuff is soooooo good!. hehe Anyway, thanks again for coming to see us you guys, you are the best and we love you!!!

Sunday was the perfect day. We both got to wake up whenever we wanted, which was seven for me and about 10 for Jake. Someone was up ALL night trying to teach himself how to play the guitar.

 LOL We decided to go to Sam’s (yes we have a Sam’s here!) because I needed to start gathering all the ingredients for my baking extravaganza. This is what I have collected so far. I need to go to Wally World today and get the rest.

We ran a couple more errands then we grabbed some lunch before the PLAY! We went to see The Gospel According to Scrooge which was presented by the First Baptist Church of Marion. It was really good! I was very impressed with the whole production from the acting and singing to the costumes and set design. It had a really good message as well.

So we got home and decided we would make dinner together. : ) We made some homemade chicken and dumplings, one of Jake’s mom recipes. Jake was in charge of the chicken and I was in charge of the dumplings. It turned out AMAZING, but I didn’t eat much, because it’s not the healthiest meal. ; ) I know Jakes loves it though, so now he has lots of left-overs for lunch. yay! haha

Don’t mind the Santa jammies or the mess ; )

Love him, so much

Christmas Pic of the Day!

My homemade pre-school ornament 

That was our weekend!! Now it’s Monday and time to get busy. Thanks for letting me share my life with you guys, hope you have a lovely Monday!!! Christmas is almost here!!! Don’t be a Scrooge! ; )